


Alt. 7 Found Family

by Onehelluvapilot



Series: Whumptober 2020 [9]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural (TV) Fusion, Bonding, Couch Cuddles, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Movie Night, Platonic Cuddling, Team as Family, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26895532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: The Hunters of the Round Table have a movie night in the Men of Letters bunker. Contains more backstory for the characters in this au
Series: Whumptober 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952440
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Alt. 7 Found Family

**Author's Note:**

> This one is barely whump. Really, it's just soft and fluffy. I made a promise to myself and my characters back when I was first writing whump, before I even knew that it had a name, that I could put the characters through all kinds of hell but I would never make them suffer alone, so I was not going to touch No. 8 "Don't Say Goodbye"/Abandoned/Isolation with a ten foot pole. I replaced it with the most 'together' alt prompt I could find instead. Enjoy!

When they were all at home, they’d have movie nights in the bunker’s man cave. It was actually just one of the bedrooms that Gwaine had dragged a couch he’d found on the curb into, along with some beanbags and a wide screen tv, but that was enough. If they chose a movie that was something Gaius wanted to watch (he liked historical dramas and not much else), Percival would carry in the physician’s favorite armchair. The younger hunters tended to pile all onto the couch and each other, which was not amenable to the physician’s back.

Tonight, they were watching Tangled. Gaius was not in attendance and Leon had already fallen asleep, not even twenty minutes into the movie, stretched out on the ground with Lancelot’s lap as his pillow. His sleepiness could be forgiven, since he and Gwaine had just finished a 19 hour drive returning from a ghost hunt in North Carolina. The other long-haired hunter, on the other hand, was totally engaged in the movie. He lay on his stomach next to his partner, hands on his chin and nose close to the television like a little kid watching cartoons. He seemed enthralled by the movie, only moving when he wanted more popcorn.

Percival held the bowl, since he was seated on the floor in the middle of the group. Arthur’s legs served as his backrest, while Elyan leaned against him from the left and Lancelot did the same from the right. He liked to be surrounded by his friends, and to be able to support them in any way they needed, be it protecting them from demons or passing them popcorn when requested. When his family had been killed by a demon, he’d worried about being alone for the rest of his life, unable to truly open up to anyone since they’d never believe his story. Lancelot coming to his interview room, dressed as an FBI agent but quickly dropping that persona, had done a lot to reassure him, and through him, he’d gained a whole new family.

On his left, Elyan leaned against his side. His head was conveniently within reach of Gwen’s arm where she lay stretched out on the couch, legs folded over Arthur’s lap. Every once in a while, she’d reach out and tap the top of her brother’s head and he’d take the bowl of popcorn from Percival and move it up to where she could grab it. The two of them had only grown closer from all the tragedy in their lives, between their mother dying when they were young and their father being convicted of murder and imprisoned more recently. They’d also, fortunately, reached out to the others for support when they needed it.

Lancelot, in particular, had been quick to offer it. Since he’d been orphaned as a child, he’d seemingly always been inclined to want to help people. It was a way for him to make himself feel better, to feel strong and useful since he hadn’t had anyone to tell him he didn’t have to be. Now that he had a family again though, he was getting better at acknowledging when he needed help, or even just wanted affection or affirmation, which was why his curly hair was constrained in a few little dutch braids at the moment. Merlin had done them before retreating to perch on the armrest of the couch.

The skinniest of the hunters that worked out of the Men of Letters bunker had a strange relationship with his friends. He never quite felt like he fit in; a product of being initially hired by Uther as a secretary and essentially servant, as well as living with the secret of being psychic. Only Lancelot and Gaius knew that he was one of Azazel’s “special children” and had telekinetic powers. The hatred of anything even tangentially related to the supernatural had been deeply ingrained into Arthur from a young age, and given his ruthlessness of pursuing and destroying monsters and demons, it was too dangerous for Merlin to reveal himself. At least for now.

Somehow, though, that never seemed to stop the hunter from becoming friends with and caring about Arthur, or the other hunters. Sometimes he’d want to hang out on the sidelines a little bit more, where he was comfortable, but other times he’d be right in the middle of the group. Halfway through the movie, he flopped down from his arm rest on the couch to sit closer to Arthur, lifting Gwen’s feet carefully and arranging them in his lap. Her right ankle was still in a cast, but her left bore a very cute sock with cats on it.

Arthur stiffened at first when Merlin’s shoulder leaned against his. Uther, who had all but prohibited his son from becoming close with anyone who wasn’t a Man of Letters, had been gone for years now, but the abusive way he had brought him up had left marks. Despite his father, Arthur had let Merlin, and to a lesser extent the other hunters, break down his walls to the point where he was now comfortable fraternizing. To the point where they were friends, and maybe even family.


End file.
